2023/08/23 - Dan + Bonnie (+Marcel)

He had a weakness for the ladies. Students, wives of colleagues. He was a step or two ahead of the law when it came to underage girls. He loved career days at the secondary schools, where a girl eager for placement in his "college programme" would be more grateful than a minor should ever be. He had burnt many bridges and his dwindling options had conditioned him to never turn down an interview.

So, on this December afternoon, "Professor" Philandre eagerly awaited the faculty recruiting agent from Hawaii. With visions of hula girls in grass skirts dancing in his head, he sipped his drink, oblivious to the man approaching. As his visitor slid in alongside him, Marcel looked up expectantly and introduced himself. "Professor Philandre at your service. I am pleased to meet you, and honoured that you have come all this way to see me. But then again so many do! They come from Brazil, from Australia, from South Africa, just to see Philandre! And now you are here from, how is it, Hawaii?"

His visitor's cold silence unnerved him. Then there was the faintest glimmer of recognition. "You are Doctor Pearlman from Hawaii, no?" His visitor remained silent as he reached through the pages in his attaché. Marcel had only seen Dan once, that one night at the after-school social where he'd begun the seduction of Dan's wife. So he couldn't place the face today. He only knew he'd seen it somewhere before.

"Alright," he began as he pulled an envelope from his case, "we have met before, Professor. My name is Daniel Cooper, and for a number of months a year ago you conducted an affair with my wife, Bonnie Cooper." And he threw down a photo in front of the startled Marcel. "Lest you forget, that is Bonnie. I know there are so many. At least that's what she looked like back when you started fucking her."

He then threw down a second photo. "This is what she looks like now.... now that you've destroyed her life." The photo was telling. The woman was emaciated, her eyes deep into her head, a hollow stare, her once brilliant and buoyant hair now dull and lifeless, the radiant glow of her complexion now a deathly pallour. Marcel sat in stunned silence, too frightened to either move or explain himself.

"Philandre, my marriage to her is over. You killed it. She has lost everything. She now lives with her parents. She is under psychiatric observation and has been on suicide watch."

Suddenly Marcel came to life.: "No, no suicide! What about the child?" Marcel had shown his hand. He had known that Bonnie was pregnant with his child, and now could not feign ignorance as to Bonnie's identity. Dan's chuckle sounded malevolent. He threw down a third and final photograph.

"Philandre, here is your child. Take a good look. Her name is Amanda. I said take a look! She is the only thing that keeps my wife from slashing her own wrists. So! It would seem as if you have a child! But Amanda is not your only child is she, Philandre? I know about you. I know you have two more children. And a wife. I wonder if she is one of those sophisticated Parisian ladies you told my Bonnie about. I wonder if she takes a lover! Yes, perhaps I should pay her a visit and show her how American men can be just as liberated about sex as you enlightened Parisians."

At that, Marcel went white, trembled, and told Dan that no, his wife would not like that. "Hmm, I thought so, you piece of shit. Well, Philandre, our meeting is over. You can stop shaking. I'm not going to shoot you or hit you. I'm not a violent man. It's not my style. Besides I have too much to lose by getting into a physical altercation with you. But I have much to gain, by use of other means. When all is said and done, you will wish I'd kept things simple and just shot you. Ciao, Philandre."

Dan walked outside the café, pulled out the untraceable burner phone, made the call, and when the male voice at the other end said "Now?", Dan said "Now".

Then he disconnected the call, threw the phone into a nearby rubbish bin, and disappeared into the Métro.

**************************************************

A shaken Marcel, as with any wounded animal, retreated to familiar ground. He made his way to the broom closet at the école that passed for his office. He found a small grey man awaiting him. "Monsieur Philandre, would you be so good as to come with me." At length, Marcel found himself in the office of the head of the literature department. There he was to learn that, not only were his services no longer required at this particular institution, but his teaching credentials had been permanently suspended by the ministry. He would never again teach in France or any French territory.

When he asked why, he was told "Monsieur Philandre, it would seem as if your scandals have at last caught up with you.... not the least of which is your recent dalliance in America, which as we are given to understand, resulted in the destruction of the marriage of a school employee and her impregnation by none other than yourself. Monsieur, the French educational establishment relies greatly on the goodwill of our foreign colleagues, and relies on their good conduct when they come here as guest faculty. We in France take a dim view of such conduct, as do our colleagues abroad. And I am aware that this is not your first time engaging in such a manner. But this time you have angered the wrong man and he is now extracting his pound of flesh from all concerned."

"This institution is being sued, as is the institution in the United States that hosted your debauchery. Monsieur Philandre, do not be surprised to find yourself being sued. Nobody is being spared this man's wrath, and now, you are simply too great a liability for us."

Marcel took his time going home. He had a wife and two children. Plus one more that he now knew about in America. And maybe others. Who was to know? OK, let's see... a wife, two kids, no job. Maybe he could keep the job thing under wraps for a little while until he lined something else up. Marcel Philandre rounded the corner and saw the front of his home, with boxes and clothes piled outside the door. His clothes. He pounded on the door and his wife's two brothers were there to greet him.

"Vivienne!", he cried, and tried to push his way past her brothers, to no avail. "Bastard!", she shrieked and came toward him. She held up a photograph of a pretty young lady and shouted "Who is this whore?" He looked closely and it was Bonnie Cooper. It was the same photo as the first one that Daniel Cooper had shown him at the café.

"Is this your American whore?", she yelled. "Speaking of bastards," she went on, " is this one yours?". And she held up the same picture of a child that Mr Cooper had also shown him at the café.

Meanwhile, the expected lawsuits were filed. Attempts to settle for pennies were quickly rejected. Dan's attorneys in both North Carolina and Paris threatened to go public and drag everyone's name through the mud. The educational institutions on both sides of the Atlantic finally came to the table with settlement offers to Dan's satisfaction. Judgements entered against Marcel Philandre proved to be hollow victories. He was penniless and blood cannot be had from a stone.

Dan paid the attorneys out of his own pocket, so that the full judgement amounts would remain intact. In fact he quietly added to that amount from his own considerable assets. The monies were pooled into one fund, which he then directed be split five ways: maintenance for his ex-wife Bonnie Cooper, maintenance for Marcel's ex-wife Vivienne Philandre, and three trust funds, one for each of Philandre's three children, his two with Vivienne, and his one with Bonnie.

Dan felt bad about breaking up the Philandre family, but he justified it to himself. If Bonnie and Amanda were better off without him in their lives, so then were Vivienne and her children. But he still felt a responsibility to spare them any further hardship and a fund of this sort seemed to be in order.

At first, Herb and Alice knew about the fund but Bonnie did not. Dan trusted them to administer the funds for the good of their daughter and granddaughter. In time, though, Bonnie did find out about the fund, and that Dan had gone to war on her behalf against that monster Marcel, and that he was even making sure that Marcel's Parisian family were being cared for. Of course that triggered another round of tears from Bonnie. It was so like Dan. He was everybody's hero but didn't ask for any glory. He hadn't wanted his agency in the whole scheme to be known by its beneficiaries. She had dishonoured the finest and most honourable man she'd ever known.

Dan found another use for the photo prints he'd made of Amanda in Chemnitzerstraße. He had one printed on a canvas-like finish that gave the image an appearance similar to that of a painted portrait. He scoured the antique shops of the Dresden area, at last coming upon an exquisite 17th century Brandenburg frame. Dan had it fitted to Amanda's portrait and sent it "with love" to Herb, Alice and Bonnie in New England. Herb and Alice were touched by the lovely gesture. But Bonnie looked at the frame as if it was the transubstantiation of Dan himself. She was caught more than once holding it to her chest. It was the closest she could come to hugging Dan.

*************************************************

After a few years in Dresden, Dan, who was now 32, met Michelle. Michelle Gallagher (née Kowalski) was a 35-year-old American ex-pat. She had come to Germany 14 years earlier as the wife of a U.S. Air Force pilot, stationed at the Rhein-Main AFB in Frankfurt, the year before it was decommissioned.

10 months after their arrival Michelle and her husband were in a taxi on the way to a restaurant when they were broadsided by a young mother, rushing so she wouldn't be late for her infant son's doctor appointment. Everyone involved walked away from the wreck. But while the police were interviewing the couple, he suddenly dropped to the ground. The impact, they later discovered, had caused some internal tearing around the heart. Captain Brian Gallagher was only 24.

Michelle had started working as a fashion photographer in Frankfurt prior to Brian's death. So, after a stateside burial in his hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut, Michelle returned to the job she loved in Frankfurt. By the time Michelle crossed paths with Dan, she had been working as a fashion photographer in Berlin for 11 years.

Dan had gone to a performance of Mozart works by the Berlin Philharmonic. He enjoyed the music but would never call himself a big fan. In truth, he was only going because a good client with season tickets had invited him.

Michelle was there with a female friend, both hoping to meet guys. During intermission everyone ran to the bar for a drink. Tables were scarce and all four of them made a mad dash for the same table. Quickly stealing a couple of chairs, they ended up sharing the table. Everyone introduced themselves. Michelle's friend and Dan's client were a bust, but for Dan and Michelle it was sheer magic.

Dan grabbed a napkin and searched furiously for a pen. Michelle simply asked for his phone and punched in her digits with a sweet laugh.

They dated for a year or so. She knew his backstory and was very careful not to spook him as he slowly and cautiously tried to trust again. They were both New Englanders. She from New Britain, Connecticut and he from Newton, Massachusetts. Their nostalgia for home began to rub off on each other.

Germany had been a fun adventure for each of them and had filled a need that had arisen in each of them, almost as a salve to their separate crises. They both had friends in Germany, but neither of them had family there. Their extended families were all stateside. On a day-to-day basis, Dan and Michelle became to each other the closest that either of them had to family. And it awakened something in them. Suddenly they wanted to be close to the people that they'd only seen on rare occasions over the recent years.

Dan put in for a transfer back to his original home office at NCP. She could conduct her photography business anywhere she chose. When the transfer was approved, they bade Aufwiedersehen to Germany and settled near his corporate office in Newton. It was not without some trepidation on Dan's part. He remembered telling Bonnie that he wished he'd never moved to North Carolina. Two months after they'd arrived, she had been in Marcel's bed.

Dan was forthcoming about the flashback. Michelle went the extra mile to reassure him, and he loved her all the more for it. After the first two months in Newton had passed, and Dan noticed that Michelle was still with him, and him alone, he felt like he'd cleared a hurdle. He proposed to Michelle and she accepted joyfully and without a second's hesitation.

The next morning, as Dan held her in their bed, she whispered to him, "Dan, honey, you know that you're going to have to tell them. They need to find out from you and not through the gossip hotline. They are still like family to you."

Dan had been thinking along similar lines. The Gordons didn't even know that he was back in town and he'd been thinking that it would hurt them if they were to stumble upon each other in the street before he'd had a chance to at least phone them. His hesitation had been rooted in a fear of seeing Bonnie, or more specifically having to tell her about Michelle. Last he knew, she was still pining for him and clutching the framed portrait of Amanda to her bosom. Well.... Dan had moved on, hadn't he? Perhaps Bonnie had, too. On the spot, Dan devised a compromise. "OK Shelley, I'll reach out to them today." Once he was settled in his office, Dan sent a text.

**************************************************

Herb was gathering the breakfast dishes and washing up, whilst Alice was on her way to a hair appointment. Bonnie was on her way back from dropping Amanda off at pre-school. Herb heard his phone ding, and wiped his hands on the dish towel slung over his shoulder.

"Hi Dad. Can you get away for lunch today? Please, just you, don't let the girls know until after we talk. Connolly's at 11.30?. Love, Dan." Dan was back in town! Herb texted back a thumbs up.

Herb basically came and went as he pleased. He'd invested well in a string of rental properties that had allowed him to retire before he'd reached 50, so his time was his own. He left a note on the table, "Running errands. - H", and dashed out the door before anyone got home.

Dan had chosen Connolly's Pub as it had a great sentimental hold on him. He'd been away for some years and had feared that Herb would tell him that Connolly's had closed down. The thumbs-up text was a relief. Dan had gone there on occasion with his late parents. He'd taken dates there. It was one of his favourite places to take Bonnie once they'd started dating, and he'd taken Herb and Alice there a few times. Dan loved the food, the drink, the atmosphere and the Connollys themselves. And they loved Dan. Hell, Jack Connolly had even tried to interest Dan in dating his daughter Maureen, but he always seemed to be otherwise occupied romancewise.

Dan arrived five minutes early so as not to make Herb wait. But Herb had got there 15 minutes early. "Ah! Must be nice to be retired, old man!" Herb span around and they embraced. They were warmly greeted by old Jack Connolly, and the now-married-and-pregnant Maureen, and were quickly sat at Dan's favourite reserved table.

"So Danny! What brings you to town? How long are you in for? And why all the secrecy?" Dan let Herb know that he had just returned, glossing over how long it had been, and let it he known that he was now here to stay. He filled him in on the basics of his time in Germany, asked about Alice, then Bonnie and Amanda. Alice was well and had taken up tennis.

Bonnie was holding steady, had put her daughter in day care and was working part-time at the same hospital she'd worked at before the move to North Carolina. No she didn't date. Her daughter was her life. She had come to terms with her divorce and was in a generally better humour than she'd been when she was at her worst. But she never came all the way back. She was not the bubbly, vivacious girl she used to be.

Herb's mood went from solemn to sunny the moment he changed the subject to his granddaughter. "Dan, that little girl is the light of my life. I know all the heartbreak behind her coming into the world, but if you spent five minutes with Mandy, your heart would just melt."

"Whoa, Mandy is it now? I recall Bonnie telling me she chose the name Amanda as if it had been some kind of religious calling!"

"Ohhhh yeah," answered Herb, simultaneously sighing and chuckling, "You know how it is... a kid does something cute, and suddenly the adults are drooling and doing baby talk. Ooh is Mandy splashing in the bath....is Mandy a happy baby.... I could hardly believe what was coming out of my own mouth. Alice is laughing her ass of and Bonnie is all stern, Daddy her name is Amanda, that kind of shit, which only made Alice laugh more, and that made me laugh, and taking her cue, Mandy started to laugh. Bonnie was the last to get on board, but she's now on Team Mandy."

"You know Dan, Bonnie would be thrilled if you'd come by and spend a little time, hell, we all would. I promise, you spend 5 minutes with Mandy and she'll turn you to butter. You'll forget all about how she got here, and she'll own your heart."

Dan looked down at his corned beef sandwich and said "I'm sure that Bonnie would like me to bond with Mandy, and through Mandy, reconnect with her, too."

"Roger that, Danny. And I won't push either way. You know which outcome I'd prefer, but I know better than to push. I'm just letting you know."

Then Dan got to the whole reason for the meeting. "Herb, um, Dad, um..... I met someone in Germany." Dan led a silent and stunned Herb through the sequence of events. Herb loved Dan as a son. He also loved his daughter and knew that Dan was the best thing that ever happened to her. Herb had always clung to the secret hope that Dan would find his way back to Bonnie and help restore her to a better version of the person she once was. Herb knew that if there ever existed a man with the strength of character to get past the kind of heartache his daughter had inflicted, it was Dan Cooper. Now he was watching that dream fade away. Then Dan dropped the bomb.

"Dad, Michelle and I are getting married." Herb gathered himself and said all the right things. But Dan could tell that Herb was crushed. "I know that wasn't what you wanted to hear, and I'm sure that Bonnie will not take it well. I get the distinct feeling that she's pinned hopes on me. But I told her in no uncertain terms way back when that were done and there was no going back. Dammit, Herb, we're divorced. She's got to move on."

"Dan, my boy, you're preaching to the choir here. I've been telling her that on a regular basis." After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, covered by eating, Dan took a deep breath. Then the other shoe dropped.

"Dad, I'm really torn up about something. It's one of those things where there is no good solution. There's going to be some hurt no matter what. And I just can't bear to hurt you guys. You and Alice are my mom and dad, and always will be."

"Well, hold on there Danny... sounds like you're about to acquire a new set of in-laws."

Dan looked at Herb with a wistful sadness. "I never met them, Herb. They died before I met Michelle. They were skiing in Colorado. Renting a cabin. There was a faulty heater and some carbon monoxide. They died together in their sleep... never knew what hit them." Herb groaned, "Oh shit, oh wow, that's just .... shit!"

"Herb, you and Alice will always be my mom and dad. That's what makes this so hard. I think that inviting Bonnie to my wedding would be cruel. I think that inviting you and Alice only would still be cruel to Bonnie. I couldn't picture you leaving her at home alone with Amanda while you were off celebrating my marriage to another woman. So you see, there is no good solution here. I can't bear the thought of not inviting my Mom and Dad to my wedding, but I just can't do that to Bonnie. I think you understand now why I needed to see you alone today."